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If you logged on looking for something fabulous today, you’re in luck. You can thank STAK Photography for this one. It’s a brilliantly gorgeous fall wedding that is going to warm your heart and break out your biggest smile. It’s all stunning autumn colors here and happy, happy love there. Cute shoes and cakes so delish. And the best part is… it’s all right here!

From the beautiful bride … Dave began working an Israeli startup in 2010, forcing him to make three to four business trips a year. In November of 2011 he was called out again and asked me to join him there. I was fussy about the distance and taking time off from work- I had no clue he planned to propose in a place that is very special to my Jewish family and me.

It rained all week, and on the rainy second-to-last night of the trip we went out to dinner at one of the “foodiest” restaurants in Tel Aviv. After the dessert course, Dave asked me if I wanted to see the photos he’d been taking. Oblivious, I say ok and flip through the photos on his iPhone. I stop at one that I don’t recognize. He sees my confusion and asks if I want a better look- and pulls out the small box that’s pictured in the photo.

It’s a wooden box that my mother gave to him to use for this very purpose. On the lid was Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss,” and inside was my ring. Even though we were seated at a big, round bar and surrounded by people, no one seemed to notice us and the moment was very intimate. This was something we were both so sure of and still it was unexpected and exciting. We turned to the bartender for sparkling wine to celebrate, and the restaurant erupted with cheers of “Mazel Tov!”

The wedding colors were purple, yellow, white and silver. I love yellow as a happy wedding color and yellow autumn leaves. I loved the combo of dark purple and yellow, complimentary. And lots of birch! I remember birch trees from growing up in Latvia, and it’s such a beautiful natural texture & pattern. I tried to incorporate it where possible to make the wedding more seasonal: the invitation paper had a slight wood-grain texture and yellow birch leaves that we found in botanical drawings; the bride’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets were wrapped with birch bark; the chuppah was simple made of birch and moss; our ketubah featured two joined birch trees; our guest place card holders were real Vermont birch branches cut in half (I hand-stamped the place cards a few days before the wedding, oy!); I found large birch-like vases that matched our ketubah and we used them on the ketubah display table; our cake had was decorated with real twigs made to look like trees; a porcelain vase painted with a birch pattern held my bouquet on our sweetheart table during dinner. Did I mention I used a lot of birch?

Dave didn’t have many requests for the wedding, but he insisted that he shouldn’t see my in my dress until I walked down the aisle. I’m a photographer myself and I knew that meant we wouldn’t have more than an hour for our couples’ portraits during the cocktail hour between ceremony and reception. He insisted, and it meant a lot to him, so I stopped trying to change his mind. It was hard to keep details about the dress or my hair from passing his view during the planning months- but the moment he saw me come down the aisle, I realized why he wanted it that way. He got emotional and held back tears during the whole ceremony, which helped me keep it together since one of us had to smile!